


Coruscate - Mayhem

by cutsycat



Series: Dictionary.Com Word of the Day Drabbles [1298]
Category: NCIS
Genre: Gen, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-01
Updated: 2019-07-01
Packaged: 2020-06-02 05:05:02
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,545
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19434514
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cutsycat/pseuds/cutsycat
Summary: The MCRT are playing security for an Admiral's ball. It was supposed to just be to ease the Admiral's mind, nothing had seemed out of place and no trouble was expected. Instead, Jenny is shot and killed? What's going on?





	Coruscate - Mayhem

**Author's Note:**

> Another dictionary.com word of the day drabble. This time from 11/19/2002 for the word [coruscate](http://www.dictionary.com/wordoftheday/2002/11/19/coruscate).
> 
> coruscate[ kawr-uh-skeyt, kor- ]  
> verb (used without object), cor·us·cat·ed, cor·us·cat·ing.  
> to emit vivid flashes of light; sparkle; scintillate; gleam.
> 
> This is for prompt #2 of the December 2018 Five Prompts Challenge located [here](https://ncis-discuss.livejournal.com/159796.html).

Tony watched the beams that coruscated across the dance floor. The lights called to him. He should have been out on the floor dancing. 

This was a masked ball. It should be fun. Heck, there should be lovers hooking up all over the place. Tony would have loved to have been one of them. 

Instead, he was on security duty. Everyone agreed that it was pretty much bullshit that they were stuck playing security for this ball instead of attending it as guests, but the Admiral had insisted that he’d felt someone watching him. The Director had put them on as security as a precaution even though they’d seen no evidence of anyone stalking him or watching him from a distance. 

They weren’t the only agents present at the ball. Others were undercover as guests and still others like the Director were actual guests of the ball. Jenny had somehow found a blue ball gown to wear that reminded him of the one Cinderella wore in the Rodgers and Hammerstein movie.

He wasn’t sure why the MCRT was picked to play security while everyone else got to have fun. Were they on Jenny’s shit list for some reason? Tony turned and glared at Gibbs.

If they had gotten on Jenny’s bad side, it was bound to be all Gibbs’ fault. Tony thought that they should be amongst the crowd having fun instead of stuck acting as obvious security. However, this was what they’d been told to do, so it was what they were doing.

It was a surprise to hear a gunshot go off that they weren’t aware of. Mayhem erupted as screams filled the air and everyone started running every which way trying to get out. In the midst of it all, Tony could see that Jenny had fallen to the ground dead, murdered.

Ziva was immediately on top of the shooter, but by then it was too late. He’d already accomplished what he came for. He had the skills of a mercenary, but the attitude of someone with a cause who didn’t care what happened to him because he’d completed his goal.

It wasn’t how Tony had expected this night to end at all. The beauty of the masks during this midnight ball had been utterly destroyed by one thoughtless bullet. The pretty gowns marred by the blood of their dead director. 

They were left picking up the pieces. It was obvious this had been done on purpose, but why and for whom. Tony highly doubted that the guy Ziva had in cuffs was actually the mastermind behind this. 

He was pretty sure there was a more sinister plot lurking in the corners. He just couldn’t figure out what it could be. It seemed unlikely that this was a lovers’ spat, but perhaps it was.

He didn’t exactly keep on top of the Director’s sex life. They would be getting a new Director, now. Tony couldn’t help wondering what change that would bring. 

He couldn’t help feeling sorrowful for the innocent love that this night had promised that would now be ruined for good. Oh, he knew that the people at this ball would meet up at other balls and if so inclined still share a lovers’ tryst, but they would still have to deal with the aftermath of this night. Watching someone be murdered right in front of you was simply not something that civilians handled well.

Though not everyone here had been civilians. A number of them had been Navy including the Admiral who was beside himself over this turn of events. He kept blaming himself for Jenny’s death since he was the one who invited her.

He kept insisting that he should have known better than to go through with the ball when he’d had the feeling that he was being watched. Gibbs was trying to comfort him in his normal gruff way, but it didn’t seem to be making a dent on the Admiral’s guilt. Tony’s gut twisted as a horrible thought occurred to him.

Was there more to the admiral’s guilt than just survivor’s remorse? Had the admiral somehow engineered Jenny’s death on purpose? With this thought hanging over his head, he sent McGee back to headquarters with Jimmy and Ducky and Jenny’s dead body. 

McGee’s orders were to look into anyone that was at the ball tonight, including the admiral, and see if their had been any suspicious activity on their bank accounts recently. Tony really hoped he was wrong and that the admiral wasn’t involved, but he just couldn’t shake the idea now that it had lodged in his head. His gut wasn’t near as good as Gibbs, but when it was this strong it was usually right.

He’d wanted some action tonight, but not like this. He would have been quite happy with a single dance with his lover, but alas that was definitely out of the picture now. He hated that they’d had to stop people from leaving but they needed their statements. 

Tony hoped that this incident hadn’t destroyed some fresh love that was just blooming. He did his best to take people’s statements as fast as he could so that they could get out of there and return to their normal lives and hopefully love. This should have been a night of love and instead they seemed to be living some Shakespearean tragedy. 

Tony couldn’t shake the feeling that everything had been staged somehow. That feeling only grew more and more with each witness statement he took. There was something off about them, but he wasn’t sure what. 

Finally, he had taken the last witness statement and they’d collected all the evidence and returned to headquarters. He was surprised to see Jenny up and around if clutching at her wound where she got hit a bit. That’s when the idea that had been niggling at the back of his mind snapped into place. 

“This was a setup.”

Gibbs nodded. 

“Why?”

“Director Shepard, ” Gibbs nodded to Jenny, “wanted to see how her people would handle surprise, mayhem, and murder all at once.”

“So this was a training exercise?”

“Yep.”

“And you were in on it?”

“Yep.”

“And so was the Admiral.”

“Nope.”

“God damn it. I knew there was something up with him. Did McGee find anything or did you cancel the exercise as soon as we all got back?”

Gibbs shook his head. “McGee is still looking as far as I know.”

“Let’s see what he found out. I have a feeling that the dear Admiral accepted a bribe to invite the Director to the ball.”

Jenny frowned. “Really?”

“It’s just a feeling. Let’s see what McGee found.”

McGee had found enough to back up Tony’s suspicions as there was an unexplained sizeable deposit in his account from a few days ago. They brought the Admiral in for questioning, but let him stew for a bit. As they let the Admiral’s tension build, Tony looked at the witness statements again.

He shook his head. “These are useless. They were all staged thanks to Jenny.”

“Tony is there even a crime here?” McGee spoke up, “No one got injured that badly.”

“Something is off with the Admiral, Probie, and we still don’t know why that deposit was made.”

McGee shrugged, conceding the point.

“Of course, thanks to the Director, figuring out what was part of whatever scheme the Admiral was involved in and what was part of her plans is going to be hard to separate.” Tony frowned disapprovingly.

Tony continued to stare at the witness statements in disgust. Finally, he sighed and turned to Gibbs, “What do you think?”

“I think the Admiral is probably ready to answer our questions now.”

Tony nodded and they all trooped over to interrogation. Tony and McGee entered the observation lounge for now. Gibbs would take first crack at the Admiral and only if Gibbs wasn’t getting anywhere would Tony step in.

Of course, the Admiral was already racked with guilt, so he folded pretty quickly about the bribery. He described the man who bribed him as a french businessman with brown hair. Tony didn’t see the significance to this, but Jenny, who had joined them in observation, stiffened.

“Something you want to tell us, Director?”

Jenny shook her head. “It’s nothing.”

“If you know who he’s talking about, it would be a great help in wrapping this case up.”

“Actually, DiNoetzo, we’ll be taking over from here.” Fornell interrupted.

“What?”

“Threat to a federal agent, especially a director of an agency, is FBI jurisdiction. Sorry, DiNoetzo.”

“It’s DiNozzo,” Tony glared at Fornell, “ and you can’t take this case away from us.”

“Watch me.” Fornell smirked.

Gibbs exchanged nods with Fornell before barking, “DiNozzo. With me.”

Tony gave Fornell one last glare before he turned and followed Gibbs. “Where we going, boss?”

“Not your boss, right now,” Gibbs grunted as he opened the passenger door and then moved around to the driver side of the vehicle.

“Where are we going?”

“Home.”

“What about the case?”

“You heard Fornell.”

“But Gibbs…”

“Trust me you don’t want to get involved, DiNozzo, besides we never did get that dance that I promised you.”

“What? Really?”

Gibbs nodded. 

Maybe this was more of a romance than a tragedy, after all.

**Author's Note:**

> The dictionary.com series has 3 stories already written for it after this one, so I will be posting at least 3 stories before I stop posting again. I'm hoping to get more stories written before then, so that I don't stop posting for a while. Wish me luck! 
> 
> It's 2019 now and I have closed my 2018 Prompt collection, but fear not my 2019 Prompt Collection is now open [here](https://archiveofourown.org/collections/cutsycat_NCIS_Prompts_2019/profile). Just click the sign up link. ;) It will remain open until the beginning of 2020. I'm hoping to complete all the 2019 prompts by the end of 2020. Do not fear I have not forgotten about the 2018 prompts and will continue working through them. It's just easier for me to not get overwhelmed if I keep the prompts separated by the year they were given to me.
> 
> If you are not an ao3 member, you can prompt me [here](http://cutsycat.livejournal.com/50701.html). Please follow the same rules as are listed in the above link. However, because this is a handmade prompt form(that thinks it's a poll), it is considerably more limited than what ao3 provides, so please use the ao3 form if you're an ao3 member. Please note the name option is for a name that I can say this is for so that you know it's for you. Since this is for non ao3 members it won't be true gifts, but you will be mentioned in the notes. Please note if you have already voted in the poll and would like to request more stories you can just add a comment to the poll. Please include the name along with the prompt, so that I can appropriately gift the prompt to you.
> 
> For any authors that want to chat and/or are looking for a place where they can toss plot ideas around and get input from people, you can come join my discord server that is specifically geared towards writing/encouraging people to write and authors. The invite link is [here](https://discord.gg/HFvwpCq). If you're not an author, but want to chat with me about writing/stories or anything else you are welcome to join. I reserve the right to boot you from my server if all you do is pester me about updates, however. *grin* Really anyone who wants to talk about writing and/or plot ideas for various stories is welcome to join. 
> 
> Also, Drakonyashka has translated a couple of my works into Russian. [Tutelage](http://archiveofourown.org/works/12378780) and [Imbue](http://archiveofourown.org/works/12378840). Go support them. 


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